


i love you so

by abscission



Series: the sky is blue and I love you [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Langst, M/M, Whump, the best laid plans of mice and men etc etc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 04:13:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20923979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abscission/pseuds/abscission
Summary: Lance pushed himself upright, ignoring the starbursts across his vision, and groped for the gun.For whumptober, day 5: gunpoint. Heavily AU.





	i love you so

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: I can never spell Acxa's name right on the first try.

“Tell me.”

Lance, in the lead, paused and looked back.

Lotor cut a brilliant figure against the yawning darkness of space. He was staring at Lance as though seeing him for the first time, and Lance had never been able to look away from those eyes, even when he hated the prince with every atom of his being.

Lotor, as though in a trance, took two steps forwards and unhooked Acxa’s revolver from her belt. “Hey—“ she started to protest, but fell abruptly silent when Lotor pointed the gun at Lance. Even Narti, ignorant to everything but the bundle of fur in her arms since their escape, raised her head. “Tell me it’s not you.”

If Lance squinted, he could still see the smoking ruin of Sincline in the background, and he knew what this looked like. To Lotor and his remaining generals, they were stranded, and the only way they were getting off this rock was back into the bloody maw of the Empire— the very place Ezor and Zethrid had given their lives for them to escape. Lance, however, had a getaway vehicle. They only needed to make it to the rendezvous point, and Lance will take care of the rest.

But Lotor didn’t know that, and there was no way for Lance to delay this confrontation or rush it along.

“Someone tipped them off,” Lotor said in a whisper. If not for the comms in their helmets, no one would’ve heard him. “Someone who had access to my encrypted files. Someone who had the key. Someone who knew those things existed.”

Acxa was looking between them, slowly shaking her head.

“Someone in _my trust_.” Lotor’s voice broke, and his shoulders began to tremble.

Lance— He could sense his connection with the Blue Lion waking up, and he knew his time was running out.

“Lotor–” Lance stepped towards him, palms out, but Lotor fired a slug into the asteroid dirt at his feet and said, voice a hiss, “Get back.”

Acxa jumped, paler than the morning sky on Terra. Narti coiled in on herself, curled around Kova.

Lance grimaced. He had fought shoulder to shoulder with these women. He had laughed with them, sparred with them, bled with them. They were, in Galra terms, the closest of companions. But they were his closest friends in _Earth_ terms as well, and he— He had fought with himself over this before. Lance shook himself mentally. Now was not the time to succumb to internal turmoil; he had to save Lotor.

“Listen,” he said, beginning to remove his glove. There was a hidden compartment inside one of the fingers, custom-made by the Green Paladin for his mission, containing his biodata for identification and re-entry back into Altea-held territory. “Listen. I have a way off this asteroid—”

“How?” Acxa demanded, at the same time Lotor stumbled a step backwards and fell, catching himself on his knees. A small puff of asteroid dust stirred up, lingering in place in the low gravity, and coating Lotor’s armor in grey.

Blue growled in Lance’s mind, a warning and an alert. She had landed. _Get here now, _the Empress was saying, through the mechanical lion. _Where are you_? If Blue sees them, all of Lance’s planning would be wasted.

“No time to explain,” Lance said to Acxa, then thought, _nor ever will there be_. A modified plan was forming in his head, and he had very little time to complete it.

He crossed over to where Lotor kneeled in the dust, and reached to help him up.

A searing pain shot through his midsection. Narti gasped.

Lance looked down. There was no smell — the helmets did not allow for ventilation, of course — but purple mesh armor was melting into red blood and red flesh, and the energy bars on the revolver were one short. Up close, Lance could finally see Lotor’s expression clearly.

Regret. Confusion. But over all that, incandescent rage.

Lance, though, understood. Lotor had never been the type to emote adequately. Anger was his most common outward expression, but it was always a mask for something. There was, however, a way past the anger.

Pain was creeping into his periphery senses, and Lance pulled off his glove. His wrist connector immediately sealed itself as designed, but instantly, his hand began to numb.

“I loved the ten years I spent with you,” he said, pulling apart the glove. His unprotected hand was quickly beginning to sport boils from the radiation exposure. “I came with the intention of selling you out, yes, but I hadn’t known the sort of person you were. I hadn’t planned on—” he dropped to the ground, unable to support his own weight any longer, but that was okay, he needed to reach Lotor’s belt pockets anyway, “—falling in love.” With only one functional hand, Lance couldn’t detach the top knuckle, but Blue would still be able to scan it, so he stuffed the pinkie finger into the first pocket he found.

“You didn’t make a mistake, Lotor, it wasn’t you. It was,” he stopped to catch his breath, and he heard a soft thud, then Lotor’s hands, gunless but with the tell-tale pinprick of claws at his fingertips, reached into his field of vision. That wasn’t right. He wanted Lotor to calm down, not to get more upset.

“Trusting others isn’t wrong,” Lance continued, refusing to yield to the gentle hand on his cheek trying to turn his head. This was important. After Blue picks them up, Lotor _has_ to trust Hunk. So, “Do you understand? Lotor, whatever your father or, or anyone else, said, don’t listen to them, trusting others is—” 

“It’s ok,” Lotor was repeating, “I know. Just—” His voice was quivering, but when had Lance dropped onto his hands? Something was being pressed to his stomach, but _that’s not the point_. Right. The point.

He activated the record function in his helmet. He saw Lotor, eyes red-rimmed and wide, his beautiful hair messy and cramped around his face, haloing it in silver. His mouth was pressed together, seeming to hold something in. Oh, Lance remembered the first time he smiled. Everything the Empress had said to him about the Galra Prince, how ruthless he was and how uncaring, that had all chipped steadily away as Lance watched Lotor fight against his father’s laws, speak up for the colonies, trying to help any way he can— and when Lotor finally smiled in his company, Lance finally realized that if there was anything to save in the Galra Empire, it was its prince.

“I am Lance McClain of Terra, Blue Paladin of the Voltron Force under Empress Allura Altea. At the hour of my death,” Lance stumbled, trying to remember the phrasing. The hand on his cheek spasmed, and in a moment of desperation he grasped onto it, hoping Lotor would understand. “I appoint Prince Lotor of the Galra Empire as my successor, right and true. Hail Altea.”

He clicked off the recording. He should send a notice to Hunk, but one hand was numb and peeling from vacuum exposure, and the other was shaking too hard to type in a message; Hunk would just have to learn of this from the feeds. Lance had more pressing matters to deal with.

He pushed himself upright, ignoring the starbursts across his vision, and groped for the gun.

Warm hands seized his, but he shook them off.

“When I’m gone, they’ll ask questions. Tell them—” Kova was awake, thank god, and he wound his way up to Lance’s elbow. Lance bit back tears. “Tell them it was the Empress’ plan to sway you to our side.”

Of course that wasn't true. The Empress had her Blue Intelligence spread far and wide, and she did not gain her current seat of power by _making nice_ with the neighbors. But if confronted in front of her people and from one of the Paladins — heroes of the people, it would at least tie her hands and give Lotor some maneuvering room. 

Finally he saw Acxa’s anxious face and her red, red hands. They had no idea how to treat a human wound, which was fine. He pushed her hands away, and his own came back stained with blood. No matter.

“Insist on it. Hunk — the Yellow Paladin, he’ll go along with what you say. Trust him. _Trust him_.”

“Okay, okay, but you have to stay with—” Lotor was saying,and Lance suddenly couldn’t remember anything else. The plan had been relayed, and Blue’s low purring meant she had honed in on his signature. He needed to go, _now_.

He reached for the gun, a spot of darkness in the dust, but something on his shoulder dragged him back.

Lance fell into Lotor’s eyes. There was a world of promise in those eyes; not so long ago, Lance had wanted more than anything for Lotor to look at him that way, and then he can spill everything at the prince’s feet and then they could— ah, but there _was _something left to say.

Lance was shy to the last, though, so.

His hand curled around the gun and he raised it with some difficulty, the motion pulling on his wound, to pull off his helmet. To the vacuum in Lotor’s eyes he said, _I love you. _

Blue purred, signaling her arrival; Lance shot himself to grant his prince a future.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time trying my hand at whump, and I don't think I'm doing it right. 
> 
> come say hi (or offer whump advice) on [tumblr](https://burntheupholstery.tumblr.com)!


End file.
